THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF NO EXPIRATION'S LIFETIME

This is my 2,000th post! It feels like a big deal to me.  I've really enjoyed doing this blog, reading your comments (both here and on the No Expiration Facebook page) and occasionally meeting people who read the blog in person.  Thanks for your support, I'm going to continue doing No Expiration, and maybe add a video element to it at some point. I am in my early 40s, and love music as much as I ever did.

It was difficult to decide what to write about for my 2000th post.  I decided to do a list of the best albums that have come out since I launched this blog in the fall of 2007.  Some of my friends have a laugh over the fact that so many of the artists I listen to are "old" (which is silly and ageist), but in fact there are some newer artists, some who are celebrated by the hipster elite.  In fact, one of these albums topped the Village Voice "Pazz & Jop" album list!

1. The Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do was my favorite album of 2010, and also my favorite album of the past few years.  The DBTs is a band I was hardly aware of until a few years ago.  It was basically listening to SiriusXM's Outlaw Country that turned me on to them, and for that, I'm grateful. Once I started hearing a couple of songs, I started buying albums, and then attending concerts.  I'm in: I'm a fan for life. The Big To-Do is one of their best albums.  If my peers ask me about "new" bands to get into, I'll mention the Truckers.  They're not new, but they're new to a lot of people.

2. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life was my favorite album of 2009. It's amazing to me that Dylan still is adding to his unbelievable body of work. He was 68 (I think) when this came out.  How many 68 year olds are still putting out classic LPs? Well, I guess you can't compare anyone to Dylan anyway. The songs on this album were incredible - instead of writing them all on his own (as he usually does), he collaborated with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.  But the secret sauce here is in the musicians he assembled for this record: Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Los Lobos multi-instrumentalist David Hildago.

3. Bruce Springsteen - Magic He's as relevant as he ever was, and he drove that point home with this album. By this point, he'd driven away lots of his politically conservative fans, and goes hard at the bu$h administration.  And he did it with some of his best songs ever.  I love "Long Walk Home." The line "The flag flying over the courthouse, certain things are set in stone: who we are, what we'll do and what we won't."  The song has one of Clarence Clemons' last great sax performances.  Actually, the live version is even better than the one on Magic, it has great vocal performances by Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren. On the same album is "Girls In The Summer Clothes" which is pretty self-explanatory. This was around the time that lots of younger acts, from Arcade Fire to Gaslight Anthem, were citing Bruce as a major audience.  For a long time you didn't have young artists referencing Bruce that much, around Magic that started to change.

4. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals - Lifeline My favorite album of 2007.  It was an album that they recorded in Paris over a (I think) two week period while touring for 2006's Both Sides Of The Gun, but it it totally a different album. The Innocent Criminals were really gelling as a band at this point... so it's weird that this is the last that we've heard of them (Ben has recorded either with Relentless7 or Fistful Of Mercy since then). I really hope we hear more from Ben and The Innocent Criminals in the future (I love R7 and Fistful though).  The album has a laid back but really soulful sound.  It's one of my favorites by Ben (who is one of my favorite artists ever).

5. Cocktail Slippers - Saint Valentine's Day Massacre There are two bands that I won't shut up about when people ask me about good relatively recent bands: The Drive-By Truckers and The Cocktail Slippers. Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is just a classic rock record, it actually blows my mind that more people haven't heard of them.  Little Steven, who produced the album, said it is one of the best albums he has ever worked on.  Think about that for a second.  By the way, I agree with him.  This album would be considered a classic and they would be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if this came out in the '60s, '70s or '80s.

LITTLE STEVEN'S END-OF-DECADE CHARTS

Little Steven has just posted his top albums and songs of the decade on his website. Some really great stuff there: I immeadiately made a rockin' ipod mix based on his songs list. Well, a slightly altered version, but "best of" lists are subjective, right?  And, sorry, Kelly Osbourne didn't have one of the best garage rock songs of the decade. Aerosmith may have: but it wasn't "Girls Of Summer."

The coolest song of the decade?  Joey Ramone's "Maria Bartiromo." Good pick. Rounding out the top ten: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's "My Lucky Day" (great underappreciated song from Working On A Dream), Oasis' "Lyla" (really underrated, I'd only heard it on Underground Garage) and at number 4, Mick Jagger's "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)," produced by John Lennon. I would call foul on that one, as it was obviously not recorded this decade, but in the '70s.  But it was only released on the 2007 The Very Best Of Mick Jagger collection, so OK. At #5, one of my personal favorites, Foxboro Hot Tubs with "Stop, Drop and Roll." At #6 is Locksley, one of those bands I would never ever ever have heard of if it wasn't for Little Steven.  Cool band: the song he choose was "There's A Love." At #7 is another personal favorite of mine, The Cocktail Slippers with "Don't Ever Leave Me" from my second favorite album of 2009, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. And that's another band that I would never have heard if not for Steven. Thank you Little Steven! The top ten was rounded out by Cheap Trick's "If It Takes A Lifetime," Primal Scream's "Dolls" and Tinted Windows' "Nothing To Me" (Bun E. Carlos makes the top 10 twice!). I don't know if I would have choose that Cheap Trick song, or even Tinted Windows, but that's what I'm talking about!

Other entries included legends: Aerosmith, Iggy Pop (a collaboration with Sum 41!), The Pretty Things, Steve Earle, Ray Davies, Neil Young, one-time Underground Garage DJ Joan Jett, Les Paul with Jeff Beck and Sam Cooke, John Fogerty, The New York Dolls, Pearl Jam, The Go-Go's, The Dictators (featuring Underground Garage DJ Handsome Dick Manitoba), The Buzzcocks, U2 and The Rolling Stones.  But there's also younger acts too: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Tegan & Sara, Noisettes, The Breakers, The Grip Weeds, The Red Button, The Catholic Girls, The Urges, The Forty-Fives, The Hives, The Len Price 3 and The White Stripes.

The albums chart was a bit rigged. Well, not rigged, but The Beatles In Mono box set was the #1 "album." Not fair. Then at #2 was the Nuggets II box set.  Come on, that's tough to compete with! So the best album that actually contained music that was new during the past decade was Bruce Springsteen's Magic. which is one of my favorite albums of the decade as well. Some people may complain about Bruce placing so high in both charts when Little Steven is a member of the band, but hey, in the Underground Garage, Steven is the boss! #4: The Chesterfield Kings with Psychadelic Sunrise #5: Primal Scream's Riot City Blues #6: Tinted Windows #7: Foxboro Hot Tubs' Stop Drop and Roll!!! #8: The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre #9:  Iggy Pop's Skull Ring and at #10: Ray Davies' Other People's Lives. Most of the same bands on the singles chart were on the albums chart, which also featured the One Kiss Can Lead To Another box set, of classic girl groups music.

I always check out the year and decade end charts in all the magazines, but I like Steven's the best, even when I disagree with them. (Where was King Khan & The Shrines???)

BEST OF THE 00's: GREEN DAY

In the '90s, I liked Green Day, but found them a bit overexposed and annoying. I became a fan at the exact moment where it seemed that people had lost interest: their 2000 album, Warning. I saw the video for "Minority" (which inspired my posting name on this very blog) and I was sold. Even if you are white, suburban and middle class, you can feel like you don't fit in, and "Minority" is all about that. Warning had some other great songs, like "Warning" (although how they avoided getting the crap sued out of them by The Kinks - the song sounds exactly like "Picture Book" - I don't know).

I saw them on that tour - they had scaled down from arenas to large theaters and it was a bit more intimate.  There were probably less fair weather fans at the show, it was great. But after that, they went on a "co-headlining" tour with blink-182, who had clearly copped some of their schtick from Green Day, and did it in a more safe and less punk way. Green Day played before blink. Green Day seemed to be going the way of lots of other Lollapalooza vets: even though they were just in their thirties, they were going to be '90s nostalgia.

And then: American Idiot.

In a democracy, questioning your government is a duty, and even a patriotic one if you do it without malice. American Idiot, recorded and released during bush's reign, is an against-all-odds classic. In the age where no one was making very political statements, it was a big one. In an era where "the album" was dead, it was a concept album in the spirit of Tommy. And when very few rock bands were getting hit singles, American Idiot was all over the radio. The tour started out in clubs and ended in stadiums.  Green Day was the most relevant band in the land. The band who used to sing about being stoned and being bored. They ended up collaborating with no less than U2 (on "The Saints Are Coming") and with The Simpsons (covering the show's theme for the film, which they appeared in, animated style).

Following it up must have been a bitch, so the band came up with a new identity, The Foxboro Hot Tubs and released my favorite album of 2008, Stop Drop and Roll, a classic garage rock album.

21st Century Breakdown has been one of my favorite rock albums of 2009, although something of a letdown after American Idiot and The Foxboro Hot Tubs. Still, this is a band that will remain relevant for years to come.

GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND COMING IN 2010

Green Day has consistently done cool stuff in recent years. They fight the power with a concept album American Idiot, make a classic garage rock album under the alias Foxboro Hot Tubs (my favorite album of 2008), tour arenas and stadiums when few rock bands can do it, and are coming to Broadway, the cool way. (By the way, thier new version of "21 Guns" with the cast of American Idiot will be out on iTunes on December 22, but you can hear it at the band's website now.  It is kind of moving; it's very "Broadway," but I kind of like it).

Now, the band have announced that they are going to have their own Rock Band game out next year. Read more about it at MTV.com.

Not enough Green Day for you?  Of course not! Well, in case you missed it, on iTunes, the expanded version of 21st Century Breakdown has covers of The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" and Social Distortion's "Another State Of Mind." There are two bonus tracks on the "Know Your Enemy" EP ("Lights Out" and "Hearts Collide") and there's a new live EP Last Night On Earth (Live In Tokyo).

AAARGH! THE FOXBORO HOT TUBS RETURN

Longtime readers of No Expiration know how I'm a huge fan of the Foxboro Hot Tubs - the garage rock alias of Green Day. Their album from last year, Stop Drop and Roll! was my favorite album of 2008. I can't believe that Green Day did a Foxboro Hot Tubs gig in England for Halloween! They played all Hot Tubs songs (including "Stop, Drop and Roll!!!" six times!) as well as "Supermodel Robots" from another Green Day side project, The Network (which also featured members of Devo) as a bunch of covers of songs by The Who, The Ramones and Chuck Berry. I am super jealous!

GREEN DAY'S 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN DUE MAY 15

I can't wait. And I'm a guy who was cynical about them when Dookie first hit in '94. I liked Green Day, but I became a fan when I heard "Minority" from their 2000 album, Warning - which was when the media really stopped paying attention to them. Of course, they got that attention back -- deservedly -- with their next album, the classic American Idiot. And their next project, as Foxboro Hot Tubs, Stop Drop And Roll!!!, was my favorite album of last year.

So, I know all the "they're not punk" etc. slams that the band always gets. I think that they're the real deal, and I can't wait to hear their 21st Century Breakdown. When they tour, I'll be there (and hoping to hear some Foxboro songs).

GREEN DAY'S 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN

If you told me in 1999 that that one of the albums I would be looking forward to most in 2009 would be a new album by Green Day, I would not have believed you. I liked Dookie and some of their other songs, but I didn't consider myself a big fan, I even found them a bit annoying. And it seemed like they were on a slow decline artistically and commerically.

Then came a somewhat underrated album called Warning in 2000. I loved the title track - although it was a blatant rip-off of The Kinks' "Picture Book" - but the song that converted me and made me a fan was "Minority." And then came American Idiot in 2004, a classic, their best album ever. And if that wasn't enough, last year, under the alias Foxboro Hot Tubs, they released Stop, Drop and Roll!!!, my favorite album of 2008.

I was glad to see the guys from Green Day at the Grammys (they presented the Album of the Year award to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss). I can't wait to hear their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, produced by Butch Vig. It comes out in May!

BEST OF '08: FOXBORO HOT TUBS' STOP DROP AND ROLL!!!

I've said it already, but Stop Drop and Roll!!! by the Foxboro Hot Tubs was my favorite album of 2008. The Foxboro Hot Tubs, of course, are actually Green Day, a band who never topped my end-of-year chart before (although I am a huge fan of American Idiot). It sounds like the guys were listening to The Underground Garage for weeks on end and then decided to make an album that wasn't as heavy as American Idiot. It's not the deepest album, but it's fun and I love it. I probably listened to it more than any other album that came out in 2008. I'm looking forward to the next Green Day album, which is going to be produced by Butch Vig. But I hope the band will do some Hot Tubs material when they tour.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ PART 2: MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2008

So, today, Larry Flick mentioned that it'd be cool if I could do an hour on his show tomorrow instead of a half hour. Why not spend half of the show on my original idea of cool box sets/gift ideas, and the second half on my favorite albums of 2008? That's cool, except I can't seem to be able to come up with these kinds of lists without thinkingandthinkingandthinking about it for a super long time. So, I'm not going to give away all of my picks - and I'll probably do a feature here in the next week or two about it. But three of my picks are definitely Mudcrutch's debut/reunion album, Aimee Mann's @#%&*! Smilers and The Foxboro Hot Tubs ' Stop Drop and Roll!!!

GREEN DAY WORKING WITH BUTCH VIG

A video that's been making it's way around the web shows about 30 seconds of Green Day in the studio with Butch Vig (his Garbage bandmate and part-time Terminator Shirley Manson sort of let the beans slip in a TV interview that Butch is working with them). That sounds like a great combination.

American Idiot really put the band in a different category. Since that album, not only did they do a real heavy cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" but they also collaborated on a song with U2. Few of their peers would have been able to pull off either of those.

They seemed to have a great time with the Foxboro Hot Tubs album (maybe my favorite album of the year!), so it will be interesting to see what they come with this time around.

FUN BAND ALERT: FOXBORO HOT TUBS

The Foxboro Hot Tubs are, of course, Green Day. Everyone knew it, but a few weeks ago, the Green Day dudes came out of the closet, so to speak, with their poorly kept secret. Anyway, the album came out today and I will say that it is a very worthy $10. As you can see by the cover, it's very pre-hippie '60s, and I mean that in the best way.

Unlike Green Day's other alleged alias, The Network (which is supposedly members of Green Day and Devo), this album is actually yielding radio hits. I wonder if they expected it.

It's funny that two of my favorite albums of the year so far are by artists under other names: Green Day as Foxboro Hot Tubs and Tom Petty as Mudcrutch.

FOXBORO HOT TUBS UPDATE

The mysterious band called The Foxboro Hot Tubs who I wrote about a while back have announced that they are releasing their debut, Stop, Drop and Roll on April 29. I'm looking forward to it, I've liked what I've heard so far.

In totally unrelated news, I'm also looking forward to new albums by The Network and Green Day.

WHO ARE THE FOXBORO HOT TUBS?

Well, if you listen to their new music at their MySpace page, you might conclude that they are secretly a well-known punk-pop band whose name rhymes with "Green Bay."

They also sound like a band called The Network, whose album, Money Money 2020 came out on Adeline Records, owned by Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.

Hmmmmm....